Re: [Usability] GNOME 2.6+ usability: points of critique

[Robert Fendt <rmfendt web de>]

And thus spake Luca Cappelletti <luca cappelletti gmail com>
Mon, 11 Oct 2004 14:07:49 +0200:

> You start with a religion war.
> Your point of view smells like a problem of a generic geek but the
> audience of the Gnome is desktop for everyone (like my syster, my
> mother and so on...)

Yeah, but "everyone" does include me, does it not? And all I am asking for
is putting some of the flexibility back in, exactly because people are
different. "One fits all" does not work.

> 
> <snip>
> 
> > 2) I am used to and can productively work with browse-mode file managers
> > like Nautilus used to be until GNOME 2.4. In GNOME 2.6 spatial mode was
> > added. Fair enough. But why does the upgrade simply change the default
> > behaviour without asking me, seemingly expecting me to re-learn before I
> > can get any work done? That is quite arrogant.
> 
> Yeah!
> I agree with you.
> But the step from 2.4 to 2.6 is a big change for the future  direction of Gnome.
> You're not into a Windows environment where you've to bring zillions
> of user from W98 to WXP slowly otherwise you lost you incoming
> marketshare...
> Although the release system seems to offer a stable mature system
> (2.2, 2.4, 2.6, 2.8) Gnome starts its rocking future just from now.
> Now we're into the Time-Zero Gnome.
> I agree with you for the part related to the migration.
> I think now we have to think to a standard way to migrate without pain
> (I never had problems migrating from 2.4 to 2.6  into my Debian...but
> in the future??).
> 
>  Again: the possibility to
> > switch off spatial mode was first hidden in the GNOME configuration
> > editor and only added into the GUI of 2.8 (AFAIK). And yes, I have tried
> > spatial mode, albeit not for very long. Desktop environments should help
> > me improve my productivity, not force me to re-learn all the time.
> 
> Again...
> Just one time.
> Nowadays you cannot use something different from a navigational mode
> or a spatial one.
> Gnome goes spatial.The decision was made.

See what I mean? Who was asked in that decision? Apparently not "the
users", at least not sufficiently so. If spatial mode becomes mandatory,
then GNOME will simply be broken for me. Something that worked for years
simply gone, because I cannot work with spatial. Believe me, I tried. An
old dog does not learn new tricks after all. At least not in a time period
I can afford to be unproductive.

> <snip>
> > given time I am sure I could still
> > extend that list quite a bit. 
> 
> Is absolutely fundamental that you rave this problems to the Gnome community.
> You cannot make only simple critics.
> Using a scientific pseudo-method you must supply the just reasonings,
> in order to make to be worth your hypotheses.

I cannot reason about matters of personal taste. My basic and only
reasoning is that to be the desktop "for everyone", you have to accept
diversity in preferences and work models. By myself I am but one example.

> > Their combination has reached a point
> > where using GNOME has become one big annoyance.
> 
> This is for you...not for the rest of the world...

I doubt that I am alone with my opinions. I suspect that many people just
stopped using GNOME, though. If that is what you want, then fine. I find
that attitude unfortunate, though.

Regards,
Robert